Britain’s rape laws to be rewritten

| 15/03/2010

(The Independent): The reporting, investigation and prosecution of rape in England and Wales must undergo a fundamental change or thousands more women will continue to be failed by the criminal justice system, a landmark review finds today. The far-reaching conclusions on how to tackle the crime of rape follow a series of high-profile scandals in which victims have been ignored and rapists have escaped detection. Baroness Stern, who has headed the five-month review of the treatment of rape victims, said that recent failures of specialist police units and sexual-crime prosecutors needed to be urgently addressed.

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  1. Ex pat says:

    Thirty years ago my 15 year old girlfriend was violently raped in England.  She was a bit of a ‘punk’ and dressed accordingly.  Rather than be sympathetic of her situation she was directly accused by the interviewing (male) police officers of "asking forit" suggesting she dressed "promiscuously".  There were repeated news reports of similar incidents being experienced by genuine rape victims.  When I was 16 someone attempted to rape me… I never reported it to this day.  I didn’t want to be treated the same way as the others.

    To my understanding whilst the law has developed and victims are more likely to be interviewed by female officers, the attitude has not changed and for this reason, the rapes are quite often not takenseriously, and the criminals get away.